


Trial and Error

by janiejanine



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 07:43:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8570083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janiejanine/pseuds/janiejanine
Summary: In which a pair of science nerds take advantage of Skyhold's more unique properties.





	

The library was calm. The crackling fire mingled with the soft murmur of voices, and Dorian let the soothing drone wash over him as his gaze drifted, finally settling on Judith, whose feet were propped on the side table, nearly dislodging a carefully-arranged stack of papers with the toe of one boot. He reached up to swat them away, and froze when he caught sight of the title on the spine of her book.

“Are you getting ideas?” he asked suspiciously. Usually, he liked nothing better than spending an afternoon trying to make whatever sprang from her imagination come to life, but there were limits. The plague mines, for example. Or that business with the tuskets.

Her expression radiated innocence. “It’s just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book.”

“You do realize none of this has ever actually worked,” he said.

“None of this has ever actually worked _yet_.”

“I meant the results are usually fatal.” _Always,_  in fact, if he remembered right.

“Exactly!” she said. “If the test fails, there’s no opportunity to try it again. I’ve solved that problem.”

He blinked. “How?”

“Have you ever fallen off the library tower?”

“I can’t say I have.”

“One of the soldiers did. She told me all about it. She’s a wispy little thing, and while she was on patrol, a gust of wind came up and swept her right over the side of the battlement. The fall should have killed her, but when she hit the ground, she _bounced_. I didn’t believe her at first, but she showed me the place, and demonstrated, and then when I tried it myself–”

“You did _what?_ ”

“I wanted to make sure. The point is, we can make it work.”

Dorian pondered that for a moment. It shouldn’t be possible. But Skyhold was ancient, with centuries of residual magic seeping out of its very stones, and he wasn’t sure why anything about it surprised him anymore. And if it was successful…well. It would be _fun_.

“Let me see that again,” he said. She set the book down, and he squinted at the intricate diagram spread across its center pages: a pair of broad, sweeping, human-sized wings. A smile crept across his face. “We’re going to need more feathers.”


End file.
